A Tale of Two Wardens
Chapter 6 – The Ruins of Ostagar

Her shield swung out, sending the wooden sparring sword flying out of the soldier's hand and into the dirt; with a quick followup move she pressed her blade to the soldier's throat.

"Take this!" Lara yelled as the soldier walked off in shame that he was so quickly defeated. Lara set her shield against one of the stone pillars near the training ground and rested down on the floor beside it. Ever since they got to Ostagar in the middle of the night, she had been having a hard time sleeping, so she followed the other soldiers to do some sparring.

After a few minutes of resting with her eyes closed, she opened them to see Theron walking over with Reilly in tow. The two of them had gotten close along the trip, mostly since she spent the road with her head hanging low.

"Hey you two," she said as Reilly came trundling up the stairs to where she had been sparring and almost tackled her down, the Mabari whimpering sadly the whole time.

"Hey Reilly...mommy is ok," she whispered but the words were weak and shaky, she just couldn't put her spirit into them.

"You should've seen it, when one of the guards insisted that I bring him to the kennel, he nearly tore the guy's arm off. He ended up having breakfast down at the Grey Warden's table with us, that was an interesting sight," Theron chuckled as he met Lara's gaze, he could recognize the pain behind them.

"You should meet with the other Wardens, some of them are really interesting," he added on, trying to make conversation. The trip down from Highever had been painful, seeing Lara so devastated made his struggles almost seem small in comparison. What didn't help was when she nearly knocked the king down while rushing off in tears when he met the group and immediately recognized Lara as Teyrn Cousland's daughter.

"Maybe later on..." Lara responded with a sigh before standing back up and picking up her shield to return to the training pit.

Theron began to walk away before quickly turning around to face Lara, "Oh maker, I almost forgot. Duncan wanted me to pass along a message. He wants you to go find one of the Wardens, Alistair, he was doing something for the revered mother so he wasn't at camp. I'm going off after the other recruits, Jory and Daveth or something like that," he pointed out before following Lara up the stairs towards the training pit.

"It's such a peaceful view..." Theron said and leant his shoulder against the ancient stone wall while looking out into the distant field.

"Where do you think the Darkspawn are?" Theron asked, turning to look at Lara.

"Underground? I'm not sure if they even make camp? Do they eat?" Lara shrugged and looked down at her boots.
"It's scary...but we're going to learn quickly...we have to."

"Maker you aren't wrong..." Theron sighed and they stood there quietly until Reilly began to whimper.

"I should get going, I'll see you near the exit to the Wilds," Theron said and turned around to walk off.

"Theron wait-" Lara interrupted and turned to face him. She placed a hand on his arm and stood there silently for a moment. "Thank you."

Theron nodded quietly and gave her a smile, "You don't have to thank me," he replied and placed his hand over hers before turning and walking off.

As soon as he turned away from the training pit, he made his way through the royal enclave of the camp, with the heavily guarded tents of Teyrn Loghain and King Cailan sitting across from one another. King Cailan's tent was empty, but voices could be heard from the opposite tent; the sound of battle plans being drawn up for the upcoming battle. In front of King Cailan's tent was a tall guard, in shimmering silver armor but with a lazy look on his face. He was propped up against one of the brick structures that made up Ostagar. A smirk crossed Theron's face as he made his way over and pretended to trip, causing him to fall towards the knight and with a quick movement, his hand reached out to swipe the coin purse off of the guard's hip.

"Excuse me ser," Theron responded before quickly walking off, the coin purse tightly gripped in his hand, and the knight none the wiser. "Old habits," Theron snickered to himself before making his way to the otherside of camp to search for the others.

"Reilly, did we do the right thing?" Lara asked as the two of them walked past a chantry sister preaching from atop a set of wooden gallows.

Reilly looked up at her, tilting his head to the side and Lara just chuckled,

"You know what I'm talking about oaf….Mother and father.

Reilly pressed his warm auburn body to her side and licked her hand, as if he was telling her that everything will be ok.

"Well I'm glad you're optimistic, now let's go find this Alistair" she chuckled and the two of them walked off together through the massive camp.

Theron's first stop was to the infirmary on the other side of the camp, a series of cots under a shadowed part of the Ostagar fortifications. Most of the men in the cots were unconscious, but shaking with bodies coated in sweat. Those in the worst shape, appeared to have black tendrils trailing up their necks. One man was awake however, and he was thrashing around, ranting and raving.

"The spawn….they're everywhere, they'll kill us all!" The man raved while Theron walked over to sit at the man's bedside.

"Calm down ser, there are Grey Wardens here…I'm a new recruit, we're gonna fight the darkspawn," Theron attempted to the man, but he was beyond help, his eyes darting all around the infirmary. Theron couldn't even tell if the man was aware of him or not.

"Thank you Ser Warden, but he just needs rest," the nurse said and Theron stepped back to let her calm the man down.

Theron turned around to make move away from the infirmary when suddenly a large man with a greatsword at his back walked over.

"Excuse me, elf, did you mention being a recruit for the Wardens? I wasn't aware an elf could be Grey Warden," the man asked, the implication of his statement made Theron's hair bristle on end.

"Now, excuse me…shem…" he started to say before lowering and shaking his head. "Duncan warned you about this Theron…you've spent your life among elves, some humans are just inconsiderate," He thought to himself before turning around.

"Of course an Elf can be a Grey Warden, who are you to even ask that?" Theron snapped, his anger seeping through his words some when surprisingly, the man stepped back and raised his hands in apology.

"Apologies, friend, my name is Jory, I just was not expecting the new recruit to be an elf," he said before Theron sighed, knowing this was not an argument that was worth having

"Ah Jory, yes….Lara and I just arrived this morning, Duncan told me to find you and the other one…do you happen to know where he is?" Theron asked, looking up at Jory.

The images of Father and Mother ran through her head while she walked, barely aware of the soldiers around her, Reilly walked alongside her, staying close to comfort his master.

"Bryce…we've made a good life for our children, it is time for them to live…" Her mother whispered, just enough for Lara to hear while Theron dragged her away. "I love you, Elie," Father said…using his nickname for mother from their youth.

Suddenly the images were broken and her body was knocked to the ground by a man in a set of deep red robes.

"Oi! Watch where you're going!" Lara snapped at him but the man simply scoffed, his eyes turning to someone behind as he brushed off the dirt off of his robes.

"I shall go see the woman if I must, now all of you, out of my way!" he barked and stormed off. Reilly started growling at the man who Lara could now tell was a mage, judging by the crystalline silver staff on his back.

"And here I thought we were getting along!" A man's voice responded to the mage and Lara turned her to head to see who it was, but the first thing she saw was a hand in front of her, offering to help her up. The hand was calloused like a warrior's, similar to Lara's and to all of the men she grew up with at the castle.

"I don't think I'm cut out for this Grey Warden stuff if a random man can knock me down," Lara chuckled as the man helped her up. When she pulled herself up she found a pair of warm amber eyes meeting hers, behind them was a handsome chiseled face with short and spiky dirty blonde hair, and a thin bit of stubble around his mouth and chin.

"Grey Warden?" The man asked before his face went red and his hand slipped out of hers.

"Oh my, you must be the new recruit from Highever, I was told that Duncan was interested in a woman from around there," he commented.

"So…Duncan truly did come for me," Lara thought to herself before looking at the man, "Yes, I am her, Lara Cou-, Lara, just Lara," Lara introduced herself and the man chuckled,

"Well that makes me just Alistair then, Alistair the bastard to my friends."

"So you're Alistair, Theron told me that I was supposed to find you, looks like the maker set me this way," Lara pointed out.
"That's me alright, the end of the maker's path, shame the maker's path seemed to be full of rude mages," Alistair teased back and Lara began to laugh, laugh for the first time in days.

"That must be Daveth…" Theron thought to himself as he watched the smarmy man starting up a conversation with a knight who clearly wasn't having it.

"Ah well come on, next time we can shack up and you can claim to have been with a full-fledged Grey Warden!" Daveth called out as she walked off.

Rolling his eyes, Theron made his way down the stairs to where Daveth was resting against a pillar beside the blacksmith.

"Nice show there," Theron commented as Daveth turned around, "It's all a part of my charm you see? She'll come running back in no time," Daveth replied, causing Theron to shake his head.

"If you say so, now...down to business, my name is Theron, I'm one of the recruits Duncan brought back with him," Theron explained as Daveth chuckled,

"And here I was hoping we would have a pretty blond with bad eyesight."

Theron rolled his eyes again, "I did come with another, a girl from Highever, Lara," he said and before Daveth could open his mouth, "Don't. Just don't," Theron said firmly before looking into the distance at Lara with a tall blond man, wearing the blue and grey mail of the Grey Wardens and the two of them were laughing, Reilly in tow behind them.

"Well….this Alistair must be a charming fellow…" Theron thought to himself as Reilly ran over and reached up for Theron's hand.

Some time later, the recruits were assembled around a fire pit with Duncan in the center, looking at the recruits all together for the first time.

"When do we get a pair of such fabulous armor?" Daveth asked Theron while Jory stood quiet, oddly fiddling his thumbs and avoiding eye contact with Lara who was still quietly talking to Alistair.

"After the joining ritual," Duncan explained and everyone went quiet. "What is this ritual?" Lara asked, "I heard you and Theron briefly talk about it along the road but you wouldn't tell us anymore."

Duncan clears his throat, "The Joining ritual is what makes a warden a warden, I will not elaborate on it now and Alistair knows not to answer any questions on the matter either, but now, your mission."

Over the next few minutes Duncan elaborated on the recruit's job, under the leadership of Alistair. They had to go into the Korcari Wilds around Ostagar and receive a vial of Darkspawn Blood each, as well as reach an ancient outpost and get some ancient treaties.

"Easy enough," Theron thought to himself as they finished going over the plans.

"Lara, your mabari should stay here," Duncan asked and Reilly huffed in annoyance before walking over to Duncan's side and laying down on the floor, resting his head on his paws.

"Well well Reilly…Theron and now Duncan, you seem to just be listening to everyone all of a sudden," Lara commented and it couldn't help but make Theron smile, but most of all he was glad she was smiling as well.

"We'll all leave in an hour, so pick up any supplies as needed," Alistair announced before turning to Theron. "I got to meet everyone else except you," he said and held out his hand.

"Pleasure," Theron said in return until Alistair started awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck,

"You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, I'm not much more of a recruit myself, I had my joining ritual less than a year ago," Alistair commented and Theron looked up at him.

"Well it seems like we're nearly all in the same position then, I don't know much about this area…I'm from the Denerim Alienage, as you can imagine…we uh…don't get out much," Theron explained, going quiet at the end, not wanting a similar reaction to what Jory said.

"I figured that, I spoke to Duncan some, he said he knew your mother? Well you must've impressed him for him to recruit you on the spot like that, I had to fail spectacularly in a Grand Tourney," Alistair joked and Theron breathed a quiet sigh of relief, obviously Duncan hadn't mentioned what happened in Denerim.

"Excuse me!" A voice called out from behind Lara and Reilly as they walked to the blacksmith, the voice coming from the kennels.

"Yes?" Lara asked, turning around as Reilly yipped at the other Mabari who had turned to look at him from behind the gates of the kennel.

"You have a mabari of your own…so this is important to you," the Kennel Master said as he walked over. "And a Grey Warden recruit at that," he commented. "We have a sick Mabari here…ingested Darkspawn blood," he explained and Lara gasped.

"I heard Darkspawn blood could be poisonous…but I never even thought about…" she whispered and looked at Reilly. "Is there something that can be done?"Lara asked and he nodded, handing her a small slip of paper.

"If you go out into the wilds and find the flower on that page, bring some back to me and I can show you how to make a treatment," the Kennel Master explained.

"That's it?" Theron said while talking to Alistair, waiting for the others to return. "That's it? That can't be it…the archdemon is killed just by lobbing its head off?" Theron asked, not believing what Alistair said.

"Well I mean….there may be more than that, and we don't know if this is a real blight…but that's it," Alistair assured Theron as Lara came over.

"Ah Lara, are you ready?" Alistair smiled and Lara blushed softly.

"You haven't seen Lara fight…your Templar training might be good but you might be up for a challenge," Theron commented while watching the two of them.

"I believe it, you have the body of a warrior," Alistair said before blushing when it hit him about what he said. "I'm not saying that you aren't womanly, it it….it is just the scar on your cheek, obvious sword cut," Alistair stammered out, stumbling over his words when Lara started laughing.

"Try again…I'll take it as a compliment though," Lara chuckled and the three of them all started laughing together.

Finally, Daveth and Jory finally arrived at their meeting point and the five of them left for the entrance to the wilds, weapons ready for their first challenge with the Grey Wardens.